A Gentle Soul

I gently teased Erin the other day when she posted a new Bian chapter a year after the last. Then I realized that I have a series that had gone dormant. This one is my secondary series, and will only be updated at a monthly level (roughly). I hope you enjoy it. It was fun to write: Dawn.

A Gentle Soul 2 – The Entwives

Ruth spent the next two years tending her flock of patients, who started coming many miles to her little hut for treatment. The coppers and silvers started to see the odd gold, and the family became the most prosperous in the valley.

Moses often stepped in when his neighbors had bad harvests, or other problems, taking over farms rather than letting outside creditors get them. He would then allow the farmer to be a sharecropper on the land. But unlike many, he devised a payment schedule that allowed the sharecropper to regain full ownership of his land if he worked hard enough. Thus, Moses started to be called ‘squire’ by the people of the valley. It now seemed apparent that both Joseph and Abram would inherit land for farms of their own, and even little Michael when he was old enough.

Ruth sat in on all the family financial decisions, since she contributed over half of the family income. After a year ‘apprenticing’ Ruth as a healer, Constance Longbridge retired entirely, having made more money during that one year than she had in her entire life before. Ruth still paid her 10% of her earnings as a pension, and the old lady found she could easily live off that without touching her savings. To her surprise she found that older single men of the valley were now courting her instead of just claiming she was a witch.

She accepted the compliments they paid her, but never settled down on one, since she was not all that interested in men. But it was Constance who was important in the next part of the story. She stormed into Ruth’s hut one day, complaining virulently about goats. Apparently two young kids had escaped from the family herd one day and wandered all the way to her home, which had the south wall made up of straw bales stacked up. The goats had been caught merrily eating the straw walls of her house, until she chased them away.

Constance recognized the brand on the kids as being from the family, so took the goats back. Ruth paid her a silver for her trouble, and to repair any damages, and then went out to see the animals. “Hansel and Gretel, what will I do with you?” she said, instantly recognizing the kids.

The young goats seemed happy to stay near the hut, and Ruth made space for them in the old family barn, as a new one had been raised near the new house. They seemed content, and over time she trained them to pull a small wagon. Eventually she could be seen travelling around the valley to patients in the wagon, or occasionally walking beside it if it held a patient that she needed to bring back to the hut to tend to.

A few months later a small boy in a red tunic ran into the hut, claiming that his mother was deathly ill, and could Ruth help. She immediately pulled on her cloak and followed the boy, who was about 10. They walked through some of the darkest parts of the forest, and the boy admitted to having been afraid or wolves passing through on the way to Ruth’s hut. He pulled up the hood on his tunic.

Finally they came to a hovel that could barely be called a house, and Ruth hurried in, seeing the bed in the corner. When she got there, she was startled. “What a big nose you have, mother,” she said, as the sleeping form let out a loud, noxious, and deep belch.

“She is over here,” the boy said from a smaller pallet bed.

“Ah, Little Red Riding Hood,” Ruth said. “And who is in the big bed?”

“That would be father,” the boy said. “He must have found mother’s ‘medicines’.

Ruth put her hand on the old lady, and was instantly alarmed. “This is serious,” she said. “This is the wasting disease, and I can only cure it part of the time. Some who get it are beyond my help.” She fed energy into the woman, and finally smiled. “But this is within my powers. I can help, but it will take all day.”

Ruth spent the day feeding energy into the woman. In the early evening, the bulk on the bigger bed rose and went outside to piss. On returning he saw Ruth, and ordered her to make him dinner. She snapped back that she was busy, and asked him how he intended to pay for her healing services. The man stopped, stared for a few minutes, and then fled out the door.

Several hours later the woman was healed. Ruth had been extra careful, since she knew that if you didn’t clear all the traces of the wasting disease from the body, it would return, and could not be cured a second time. Thus by the time she was sure she had everything, the woman was feeling quite well, and insisted on making her a small meal before she left. As Ruth hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and had expended a great deal of energy during the day, she agreed, and sat down to eat supper with her patient and the son.

She saw the father as she left just before midnight. He politely tipped his hat to her, and then went into the house. The walk home was even scarier at night, especially alone when she heard the howl of a wolf not far away. But a minute or two later she glimpsed one of the little people in the trees, and no longer feared for her safety. The hobbits were ferocious fighters with their short swords, and no wolf would attack anyone under their protection.

Three days later she came to the small hut, and found a large load of freshly sawn wood piled next to her barn. She mentally thanked the woodsman, and later told her brothers to get the wood for projects around the farm.

A few months later Ruth was called to the house of a pregnant woman. The birth was not difficult, and in a few hours a little boy was born. The woman had luscious long brown hair down past her waist, and also had a daughter of about 16 whose hair had never been cut. It was longer than she was tall, and when she let it down each evening to be combed by her mother or grandmother, it was so long that she had to stand at the window, with the person combing standing outside to be able to comb all the long locks. The girl had the funny name of Rapunzel, which Ruth remembered.

Another name she remembered was that of a small man who worked a spinning wheel. He was a good-natured soul, and used to joke that he could spin wool into gold, since his nimble hands allowed him to spin much more efficiently than most people. His name was Rumpelstiltskin. Ruth also delivered his wife a fine son, which he paid for with a quilt of finest wool, gold in color.

One visit she made was most perplexing. A girl known as Little Briar Rose was found unconscious after falling on some rocks near the river. She was taken back to her mother’s house where she lay in a coma for two days before Ruth was sought. Getting there, Ruth spent several hours feeding energy into the pretty girl, and felt everything in her brain heal. But she didn’t wake up.

Then, while the mother was feeding Ruth, the beau of the girl arrived at the house, just having learned of the accident. He went in to see her, and cried out as he saw her sleeping there. He went over and kissed the sleeping form, and that, somehow, caused the girl to waken, to the relief of Ruth, the mother, and the beau. The sleeping beauty was completely cured.

These adventures made Ruth happy for her fate. She had never become bored as a healer. So it was with surprise that she saw Goldberry standing outside her hut one evening when she had been working long hours preparing a healing salve.

“Milady,” she said to the comely fairy. “What can I do for you?”

“I have a mission for you,” Goldberry sang in her melodious voice. “Will you undertake it? You may be gone for many months.”

“I will do anything you ask,” Ruth answered. “But what of my people? Who will heal them?”

“I will find you a replacement healer,” Goldberry said. “Be ready to travel in three days. Hobbits will come.”

With that Goldberry turned around twice and was gone. Ruth now had the unenvious task of telling her mother, and little Mary, that she had to leave them again.

“Oh no,” Miriam cried out. “You will leave us Ruthless. Must you go?”

“I must,” Ruth said, as Mary cried on her lap. The girl was nearly four now, and followed her sister about whenever they were together. “The lady Goldberry has given me much, and I must heed her call.”

“And what of the business?” her father asked. He was worried both for his daughter, and for the loss of her income.

“Goldberry says she will find a replacement,” Ruth said. Moses doubted that a replacement would provide a share of her earning to the family, though, but he did not say. The farm could easily survive without Ruth’s income: it just wouldn’t be able to grow as it had over the last few years.

While the family was discussing their futures, Goldberry and Tom were back at Old Man Willow near the Withywindle. Last year Tom had captured a man who was clear-cutting the forest at its north end, trying to carve out a farm. Twice Tom had told him to stop, and to go away, but the man just ignored the small elf-like creature. On the third time Tom waved his stick, and the man froze. He then was walked to the old willow, and made to lean against it. “Take your dinner, Old Man Willow,” Tom sang, and suddenly the man was snapped up.

That had been a full year ago, and now Goldberry was back with Tom, bearing a white shift. Tom again turned his back, and sang the captive out of the tree. A blonde girl stumbled forward. Goldberry helped her into the shift, and then called forth four hobbits.

“Your name is now Erin, for Eriador,” Goldberry told the new girl. “These good men will lead you to your new posting. You cannot use hobbit-flys, so it will take you a full two days to get there. The bemused girl followed the hobbits even as she felt her breasts and other new body parts in confusion.

Three days later Goldberry, the new girl, and Ruth met outside the old barn. The four hobbits lay in the hay while the women talked. Ruth recognized Bodo and Drogo from her time with the seven hobbits. Ruth took Erin inside to show her around the hut. Erin had also been taught healing by the willow, although she had not been as good a student at Ruth had been. But Ruth was confident that she knew enough to heal the local people, if not those who travelled from the cities to be healed.

She took Erin into the house to meet her family, and to make final preparations to leave. Her mother gave her a sack of food, including two loaves of bread, cheese and some dried meat. Ruth accepted. Her family no longer was short of food.

After tearful hugs and wailing, especially by little Mary, Ruth headed alone to the barn where Goldberry and the hobbits waited. Goldberry opened the bag and then tossed it to the hobbits, who quickly tore into the bread, making sandwiches that used up the meat and cheese as well. As they munched merrily on their surprise meal, Goldberry spoke.

“You know Bodo and Drogo,” she said. “The other taller two hobbits are Meridoc and Peregrin Gamgee, great grandsons of the famous Sam Gamgee who you may have read about in There and Back Again.”

“Hello,” Ruth offered, but the hobbits both had full mouths, and could only mumble a welcome.

“The hobbits are going on a quest. You read about Ents in the book?”

“I did.”

“Do you recall hearing about Entwives?” Goldberry asked.

Ruth thought. “Yes. The Ents lost them, didn’t they?”

“Exactly. Well, these hobbits are seeking them. Frodo Gamgee, their father, spent his entire life working on the mystery of the Entwives, and feels he may have solved the puzzle. He thinks that the southern hobbits, the ones that spawned Gollum in the old times, may have captured and enslaved the Entwives, and he has tasked his sons, and their friends, to try and find them.”

“Why do they need me?” Ruth asked.

“The old adventures were a combination of wizards, hobbits, elfs, dwarfs, and men. There are no more elfs and wizards, and the dwarfs no longer will deal with men. You have an elfish streak in you. You will have to find suitable men to complete the company as you travel. Make your numbers odd. The original company had nine. That, or seven, would make a good company for this new mission.”

“What are we to do? Where are we to go? Can’t you come with us? You could be our wizard.”

“I am no wizard,” Goldberry said with a laugh. “And I cannot travel far from Tom, and he from his lands. Even here I had to bring him, and he waits a few miles away, close enough to his lands, yet close enough that I can be here. This is the limit we can travel.”

“As to where and what, that will become clear as you travel,” she said. “All I can say is head south, towards Rohan. You may not need travel that far, but start that way. If you do find the Entwives, bring them back, and the hobbits will take them north, to where the Ents sleep in Fangorn. Hopefully the Entwives will be able to wake the Ents, and they might again enrich Middle Earth.”

When it was clear that Goldberry was ready to leave, she picked up the empty food sack and handed it to Ruth. The girl’s eyes widened when she discovered that the sack was full. “My final gift to you,” Goldberry said. “To make sure you never go hungry on your trip. A necessity when travelling with hobbits.”

As Goldberry spun about and disappeared, Ruth saw the hobbits hitching Hansel and Gretel up to their cart. She hopped on, taking the food sack with her, although the hobbits looked as though they would be more than willing to carry that. The cart creaked out of the barn. As she drove past the house, she saw her entire family, and Erin, watching and waving as she went. She noticed that none of the hobbits could be seen while they were in sight of the house, but once they crossed a little hill, all four appeared again.

“Do any of you know where we are going?” Ruth asked Bodo as he walked alongside the cart.

“We need to take this road to the main road, and then the road to South Farthing. From there we go to the Great South Road,” Drogo said.

“I’m glad someone knows where we are going,” Ruth said.

“Uhm, er, we don’t exactly know where we are going,” Bodo said. “We just know the direction we are to take. We need to find the southern Hobbits. We don’t exactly know where.”

“Well, that should make this an interesting journey. And along the way we have to find at least two people to join us on a trek to a place we don’t know, which will last for we don’t know how long. Are you four willing to be seen by these new people, when we meet them?”

“Unless they are hobbit-friends like you,” Drogo said, “then no we are not.”

“Ah, so when we meet people along the road, you four will just disappear?”

“Not exactly,” Peregrin said. “But we will protect you. You will appear to be travelling alone, but we will always be close by.”

“Peregrin, right?” Ruth said to the new hobbit.

“Yes, but call me Pippin.”

“And me Merry,” said the fourth hobbit.

“Well that will be easier,” Ruth said.

“Perhaps we should stop for a meal,” Pippin suggested.

“What?” Ruth said. “We have only been travelling for less than an hour, we can’t stop to eat yet. You four had a great meal back in the barn.”

“It was a great meal,” Pippin said, rubbing his stomach. “That is why I suggested another. You see, hobbits are well known for enjoying eating. Five meals a day, unless we can get more. Breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, tea, and supper. Snacks in between.”

“Goodness,” Ruth said. “It is a good thing that the lady gave me a sack that won’t empty. Although with you lot, I wonder if the magic will stretch that far.”

“It’s as good a time as any to find out,” Pippin said. “Just a quick meal. Shouldn’t take long. And then a little nap might be nice.”

“No,” Ruth said. “We are not stopping every hour to eat. In fact, if you need five meals a day, then two of them will have to be taken on the march, as the soldiers say.”

The hobbits grumbled a bit, particularly Pippin, but continued to walk alongside the cart. Ruth realized that she would have to give the goats a good hour’s rest at the lunch break. In fact, even riding could make one stiff, and a break would be good for her too.

But before they reached the lunchtime stop, the hobbits disappeared, and a second later a big man came rushing out of the ditch, waving a long knife as though it were a sword.

“Ah, what have we here?” the man said. “A pretty little girl, travelling all alone. I think I am going to have some fun, before I go to sell my new cart and goats.”

Ruth was afraid. The man was waving the knife dangerously, and her virginity had been threatened. Then she saw two of the hobbits, Pippin and Bodo, come up behind the man. They tackled into him, one to each leg. Being hobbits, they were not large enough to knock him over, but they staggered him, and he dropped his knife.

First he looked about to see what hit him, but the hobbits had jumped under the cart and hid behind it. He then reached down for his knife, which he had dropped when hit. He could not find it, although he searched around the entire cart. Ruth was rather amused at the way the two hobbits moved counter to him, to always keep concealed.

“That was a good knife,” the man said. “Are you a witch? Did you take it?”

“I am a simple healer,” Ruth said. “I didn’t take your knife.”

“Ah well, I don’t need it to deal with a tiny thing like you,” the man said. Just then Ruth saw Bodo behind him again, and a second later the man’s trousers dropped to the ground. The rope he had used to hold them up had been neatly sliced.

“Drive on,” Ruth heard Pippin’s voice, although she could not see him. So she flicked the reins and the little cart started moving forward. The man yelled at her to stop, but had to hold his pants up with both hands, and he tripped (or was pushed) as he tried to chase after, falling hard onto the road.

Ruth didn’t look back until she was at the top of a rise a mile down the road. He was standing in the road where he had fallen, looking perplexed at his failed abduction. As the cart moved over the top of the rise, the hobbits reappeared, looking jolly as if they had just had a great caper. Bodo was brandishing the man’s long knife as if it were a sword, which it was to his small stature. Suddenly he flicked the knife and it disappeared into his clothing somewhere.

“So you see, you were quite safe,” Drogo said. “Bodo was needing a sword anyway. The rest of us all have them, although we keep them hidden away when not needed. That was fun, but surely it is getting near time for lunch?”

“I thank you all for that,” Ruth said. “And if you can find a good safe spot to pull off, then we can have lunch. I need to let the goats graze for a while anyway, so perhaps we will rest for an hour.”

The hobbits feasted twice from the bag, and Ruth was a little less concerned about its magic running out. It was Goldberry magic, after all.

As the hobbits sat around, Ruth held a little meeting. “Goldberry said we needed two or four more on the quest. Should they be men or hobbits?”

“Men I think,” said Pippin. “We already have so many more hobbits.”

“And only two,” Merry added. “We want this to be a mostly hobbit quest. If we find four more, then the men will outnumber us. If you don’t mind me grouping you in with the men.”

“It will be a bit of a problem for the men to be on a quest with you, if they can’t see you, won’t it?” Ruth asked.

That statement perplexed the hobbits, and they argued amongst themselves as Ruth cleaned the camp, took back possession of the food sack, and got Hansel and Gretel hitched up.

Bodo then approached her. “We have decided that if we are on a quest with men, then we will have to let them see us. If you find any men, we will watch them, and appear if we think they would be good on the quest.”

They rode on for another hour and a half, and then came across two dusty men walking the road. These men were polite, unlike the one who tried to accost Ruth, and she offered them seats on the wagon. They agreed, telling her that they were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, brothers who were wandering the country looking for stories.

Ruth told them she knew of no stories, but chatted gaily as the wagon rolled on, with the hobbits keeping out of sight. Finally she told the story of Hansel and Gretel, the two goats who had been caught eating a house made of straw.

“That’s perfect,” Jacob said. “But not goats, children.”

“And not straw, but something better,” Wilhelm suggested.

“Chocolate.”

“But who lives in a house made of chocolate?”

“A witch.”

“A witch who traps and eats little children.”

“Except the children push her into an oven and are saved,” Jacob said.

“Perfect,” answered Wilhelm.

“Perfect,” agreed Jacob.

“You see Ruth, you did have a story.” And with that Wilhelm told the story that people now know of as Hansel and Gretel.

“That’s quite good,” Drogo said, popping into view.

“Very good,” Pippin added, “Although it would be better told over a lunch.”

“Or supper,” Drogo said. “It must be nearly supper time.”

“Or past it,” Merry said.

Jacob and Wilhelm shrieked a little at hobbits popping into view all around the wagon. Ruth had to calm them down, explaining that they were to protect her, and had remained hidden until they felt safe with the brothers. Or too hungry to wait in hiding any longer, as was the more likely case.

“Are there more of you?” Jacob asked Drogo.

“Many,” the hobbit said. “Although not nearly so many as in the old days. Men have squeezed us out of the shire, and we mostly live in the forest now.”

Ruth pulled the donkey cart over to a clearing near the road, and announced that there would be a dinner. As they ate Drogo told them of the time Ruth had lived with them. After that, the two went into their back-and-forth routine, until they could finally tell everyone the story of Snow White and the Seven Hobbits. (The Grimms wanted to use the word 'dwarfs', but the hobbits were highly offended by that word, dwarfs and hobbits being nothing alike. The brothers agreed to use the word hobbit, although they didn’t tell them that they would change it back to dwarfs when they were in other areas where hobbits were not known.)

“We are on a quest,” Ruth told the two men as the hobbits smoked. “We need to go somewhere south, and find something or somethings called Entwives, and bring them back to Fangorn Forest, which is somewhere in the north. We are going to South Farthing, and then down the Great South Road. It is all rather silly and confusing, and I don’t suppose you two would like to join us and fill out the company, would you?”

“Would we,” Jacob looked at his brother and saw the glint of excitement in his eye. “That sounds exactly like what we would want to do. A great adventure.”

“It might be dangerous,” Ruth said. “Apparently the Entwives were stolen by the southern hobbits, and they might not want to give them back.”

“Danger? Super. We are in,” Wilhelm said. “When do we start?”

“Well, we have actually started already, but if you two help hitch up the wagon, we can be off to Southfarthing.”

Ruth cleaned camp, and came back to discover that the brothers were completely inept at hitching a wagon, or pretty much anything useful. She showed them how to do it, hoping that next break she could let them handle it.

“How far is this Southfarthing place?” Ruth asked.

“Well, we will be in it tomorrow night,” Drogo said. “But it will take another two days to cross it. Then another three days down to the old south road, and I guess we will be a week or two on it.”

“How will we know when we get to the lands of the southern hobbits?” Ruth asked.

“We are hobbits. We can tell when others are around by their smell,” Merry said.

Ruth sighed sadly. Two weeks down, at least. And that meant two weeks back. If they were successful in rescuing the Entwives. And she had no clue how that was going to happen.

“It has been a wonderful adventure so far,” Jacob Grimm said gleefully. “Can you tell us another one of the stories that you don’t know?”

Ruth racked her brain. “Well I had to go through a forest to heal the mother of a little boy in a red riding habit. There were wolves on the way home.”

“A girl,” Jacob said.

“Little Red Riding Hood,” Wilhelm said.

“Her Grandmother,” Jacob said.

The quest was on.